John Sullivan was formerly the US Ambassador to Russia during the Trump and Biden Administrations and previously Deputy Secretary of State. John just published a new book entitled Midnight in Moscow: A Memoir from the Front Lines of Russia’s War.

Maurice Samuels is a Professor of French at Yale and the director of their Program for the Study of Antisemitism. Maurice is the author of a new book entitled Alfred Dreyfus: The Man at the Center of the Affair.

Neil Shubin is a Professor of Biology and Anatomy at the University of Chicago and the Provost of the Field Museum of Natural History. He is the author of a new book entitled Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life from Ancient Fossils to DNA.

Jay Greene is a Senior Research Fellow in The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Education Policy and previously was the Department Chair at the University of Arkansas’s Department of Education Reform. Jay is probably best known as my debate partner at New Trier High School.

Peter Moskos is the author of the books Cop in the Hood as well as In Defense of Flogging. Peter is a Professor in the Department of Law and Political Science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. I want to find out from Peter what it is like policing in the Eastern District of Baltimore when he was a police officer and why he thinks we need to reconsider physical punishment in lieu of incarceration.   

Michael Walzer is an Emeritus Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study. He has previously taught politics and government at Princeton and Harvard as well. Michael has written the leading book in his field entitled Just and Unjust Wars. I want to discuss with him his moral philosophy of war and then apply it to the current conflict in Gaza.

Scott Turow is the author of the novel Presumed Innocent which has recently been adapted into an 8-part Apple TV miniseries. I want to learn from Scott about adapting his novels to film. I also want to hear his views on copyright and whether it serves public policy to give authors control over their books and derivative work for their lifetime plus 70 years. And most importantly I want to hear from Scott about what he thought about the new radically different Presumed Innocent miniseries.

Darren Schwartz is the What Happens Next Film Critic. I plan to ask Darren to compare the miniseries with the novel and the 1990 Harrison Ford movie.  I would also like Darren to comment on how the change in our social mores forced a change in its plot and characters. 

Kurt Schmoke is the President of the University of Baltimore. Kurt served 12 years as the Mayor of Baltimore and 8 years as a prosecutor, and he came to oppose the Federal War on Drugs. I want to find out from Kurt if drug legalization has reduced violence and made our communities safer?

Daniel Diermeier is the Chancellor of Vanderbilt. I want to discuss with Daniel what caused the current chaos on college campuses and whether universities would be better served by remaining neutral on controversial political matters. I want to understand what the objectives of the university are and how free speech and civil discourse on campus fits into that. 

Gerald Posner is the author of Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK. You may recall that Gerald and I recorded a two-part podcast series on Oswald and JFK that could be found here and here. I want to discuss with Gerald what we have learned so far about Trump’s alleged assassin, what was the extent of the security failure, and why we Americans gravitate so quickly to conspiracy theories on both the right and left.